Hey folks,
Gremmie here (that's surfer speak for a newbie), although not new to food allergies and asthma. I've been dealing with asthma all my life and seafood/fish allergic anaphylaxis for the past five years (I'm 41). Talk about the biggest bummer for a bona fide blond California beach bum. I literally grew up on the beach in a small town called Pacifica just south of San Francisco and I LIVE FOR THE BEACH! At least up until five years ago that is.

I found this website while doing research and just wanted to say HELLO!!

I'll be sharing my experiences and knowledge in the various other topics hereabouts.

I so used to love shrimp. Then while living in Florida (ok, we didn't surf in Tampa-Clearwater, but the beach is fantastic), I became ana. to shellfish. Bummer (as you'd say).

So you're allergic to fins and shells? I can still do fish.

Kdufour - people often ask that but allergists say there's no evidence of anyone reacting from being in the same water as seafood.

By the way, seafood allergy is the most common adult onset allergy. And I'd better get back to work because ... I'm writing an article for the next issue of AL mag as we speak on why this has become so common in adults. (An estimated 6.6 million Americans have it; 660,000 Canadians).

At least misery has company.

_________________Allergic to soy, peanut, shellfish, penicillin

Last edited by gwentheeditor on Tue Oct 23, 2007 2:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I do still go to the beach, but only with my family and emergency kit. It also happens that there are two major hospitals within a 5 minute drive of the beach I frequent, as well as a fire station with an ambulance right across the street. I figure I'm covered in the event of a reaction.

I've had 9 reactions in the past 5 years, and those were all a result of either inadvertantly ingesting a cross-contaminated food, or inhaling the steam of crab or shrimp or lobster cooking. I have not had any by simply going to the beach, or grocery shopping in a store that also has seafood, or from skin contact of any kind.

Since being diagnosed with allergic anaphylaxis 5 years ago I've done LOTS of research, and with my allergist's endorsement, I've made the decision to continue going to the beach with my family 3 to 4 times a week.

That's not to say I'm going to push my luck. At the first sign of the slightest reaction I will give it up for good.

The first reaction I ever had was while visiting my wife's grandparents in Washington. They were serving lobster for dinner and I had only a few bites before I started feeling very ill. I had eaten plenty of seafood my entire life and never had a reaction, so I simply thought this specific lobster had gone bad. It didn't occur to any of us that it could be an anaphylactic reaction. I spent three days bedridden as sick as could be, but still thought of it only as something similar to a bad flu.

Then a few months later we went out to a sushi bar. I ate a few pieces of a variety of shellfish and fish, and WHAMMO! It hit me full force within minutes of my first bite. Hives, eyes and lips swelling, nausea, asthma, lightheadedness, swollen throat, the skin burning and itching. The guys in the sushi bar recognized it and my wife drove me to the hospital, luckily just down the street. I walked in the door of the ER and the staff looked at me as though I were already dead! By the time I hit the stretcher I was unconscious. Four hours later I woke up and my new life began.

Another 'adult-onset allergies' person here 29 years of uneventful apple-eating came to an end for me one day in a very scary way. Since then, I also have found out that my two-year-long Eczema Flare-Up That Would Not Die was actually a corn allergy.

I would love to see the magazine do an in-depth feature on adult-onset food allergies. I know that for me, there were some real psychological adjustments in addition to the obvious practical ones. I never grew up dealing with any sort of food restrictions, so it really was hard at first (and I still get reactions because I sometimes am not as careful)

Your shellfish experience sounds eerily familiar. I think one of the hardest things about adult onset allergies is that if you haven't had a food allergy up until that point, it's not your first thought if the symptoms aren't obviously food allergy.

I had all sorts of bad stomach/nausea incidents with shrimp or sushi (which included shrimp and crab) and a memorable shrimp cocktail bout of projectile vomiting (you learn to appreciate what the term means). But I kept thinking - 'boy, did I ever get a bad flu' or 'wow, that sauce didn't agree with me'. Didn't make the connection - I thought I only had enviro allergies. And probably also missed because I could sometimes eat shellfish such as mussels uneventfully.

Then one day - whammo - full-on anaphylaxis from shrimp. I, too, was in pretty bad shape at hospital but didn't pass out. Yours sounds really scary. Guess that was an eye-opener. I know my reaction was. The one thing about having severe respiratory distress and hives is that at least the penny drops that it's food allergy.

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